Many fishermen use an air pump or aerator in their live-well container. Such pumps inject air into the water to increase its oxygen level. This increased oxygen level allows fish or other live bait to remain alive for longer periods of time. This increased time is critical when transporting bait fish on longer duration fishing outings. However, another parameter which may affect the health of the bait even more so than oxygen levels is that of water temperature. The poor insulation capability of most bait containers coupled with long fishing times mean that many bait fish die of heat before succumbing to the lack of oxygen.
A common attempt to overcome this problem is the use of ice which is placed in contact with or around the live bait container or simply added to the live bait water. The use of ice has many disadvantages, particularly the lack of temperature control. Water achieving too low of a temperature can be as deadly to the bait fish as when the water is too high a temperature. Additionally, the use of ice can lead to cold pockets in the water which can put the bait fish into shock when they swim through that area. When ice is placed directly in the live bait water, the chemicals commonly found in ice can also be deadly to the live bait.
Various devices have attempted to overcome the disadvantages of simply packing the bait bucket in ice or adding ice to the water. Examples of these attempts can be seen by reference in several U.S. patents along with devices intended only to aerate the live bait water.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,772,867 issued to Cleckner discloses an aerator intended to introduce air into the water of a fish or bait tank in order to aerate the water and remove carbon dioxide. U.S. Pat. No. 3,217,444 issued to Howard discloses a live bait storing device also intended to provide water aeration powered by a self contained battery for maintaining the live bait fish in a healthy condition. U.S. Pat. No. 3,711,986 issued to Anderson discloses an aerated bait keeper having an inner bucket insertably fit within an outer bucket and an aerating tube to introduce oxygen into the water. U.S. Pat. No. 4,677,785 issued to Lambourn discloses an aerated live bait bucket also intended to introduce oxygen to the live bait water contained within the bucket. U.S. Pat. No. 5,921,017 issued to Clark et al. discloses a live bait transporter which provides aeration of the live bait water through an air bladder which bleeds air into the water when pressure is applied.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,831,310 issued to Frangullie discloses a live bait bucket having a plurality of chambers separated by partitions to keep the live bait separated and allows ice or hot water to be introduced as a temperature control as fluid flows between the chambers.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,151,810 issued to Wiggins discloses an aquarium with improved filter and temperature control system having a water filter compartment which contains a heart exchanger for heating or cooling water which is circulated between the filter compartment and the aquarium tank. U.S. Pat. No. 6,962,019 issued to McDougle discloses an enhanced filtration and water conditioning system for a bait tank having a water filtration unit and a refrigerant based heat exchanger to condition a quantity of water circulated through the filtration unit.
While these attempts may achieve their purported objective each suffers from one (1) or more disadvantage or deficiency related to design or utilization. Particularly, these attempts do not overcome the many of the disadvantages as described. Those attempts that may overcome these disadvantages utilize complicated temperature conditioning systems which are not suitable for convenient transportation during a fishing outing.